Computer print outs are often made on a paper that is perforated along the edge so that a drive mechanism can pull the paper at a controlled rate through a printer. Generally, the paper is stored in continuous length comprising a stack of sheets with an accordian fold between each adjacent sheet. The drive mechanism can pull the paper through the printer as each sheet unfolds from the stack of sheets. After printing the printed sheets are restacked with the sheets refolded along the same accordian fold to form a stack of printed sheets. In some instances the outside edge of the stack can be coded so that the paper belonging to a given report can be easily distinguished and separated from preceding and subsequent material.
The individual pages in the stack can either be separated (burst) or used without further processing. In either case the individual sheets of the report can become mixed or lost if they are not held in proper position in the stack.
To prevent the individual sheets from separating the prior art uses a binding system wherein metal posts are inserted through the openings in each sheet and a metal bar is secured to the posts on each side of the stack to bind the stack of papers together.
Many of the reports contain information of a transitory value and are useful for only a short period of time. Therefore, it is customary to remove the metal posts and recycle the paper. Removing the metal posts is a time-consuming and expensive task that is a detriment to the economics of a recycling process.
My invention provides a means and method to bind the print out sheets and the like with low cost binding members that need not be removed when the print out sheets are recycled.